Bonzai
Banned
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2013
- Messages
- 3,328
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- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Progressive
I can't help but think we're becoming Rome.
Roman citizenship was a privileged political and legal status afforded to freeborn individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance.
In the Roman Republic and later in the Roman Empire, people resident within the Roman state could roughly be divided and stratified into several classes: citizens, Latin Right holders, slaves, freedman, etc.
Citizenship, and the benefits that came with it, was a birthright, an entitlement. It was rarely earned.
I won't bore you with a history lesson, but when we talk about having "guest workers" and so forth, I can't help but be reminded of Rome's stratified class system.
America, to me, has always been about something different. This country has always seemed to stand for the ethic that, if you're willing to work hard and take some risks, you'll be rewarded on the merit of what you do. We don't have nobility or birthrights in America, at least, we didn't used to.
We're going down a road I'm not happy to be going down. We're slowly but surely becoming what Europe was before all the Americans left to come to America.
Get rid of the mindset that being born a "citizen" entitles you to anything more than someone who wasn't born with that distinction. Distinguish yourself through your knowledge, your skills, and your work ethic. Compete. Win because you're better, not because you were born with a silver spoon.
That's what America is about.
What you're giving is merely a snapshot of Rome from one time. Later, citizenship was extended in a more universal way, primarily for reasons related to expanding the tax base............................